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The first translators had to develop translation styles. The general approaches of translators are usually expressed as »literal«, »wooden«, »stereotyped«, »faithful«, or »careful« and their opposites, »free«, »contextual«, or when exceedingly free, »paraphrastic.« Between these two extremes many gradations and variations may be discerned, from extremely paraphrastic (to the extent that the wording of the parent text is hardly recognizable) to slavishly faithful. For example, the characteristic Hebrew phrase in Gen 11:10 »Shem was 100 years old« (literally: Shem was a son of one hundred years) was translated Hebraistically into Greek as »a son of«. In natural Greek, a more appropriate phrase would have been chosen.

The books of the LXX are characterized by different translation styles, probably based on the translator’s personal inclinations. An analysis of these styles is used in the text-critical analysis: If a translator represented his Hebrew text faithfully in small details, we would not expect him to insert changes in the translation. Therefore, when we find differences between the LXX and MT in relatively faithful translation units, they must reflect different Hebrew texts. On the other hand, if a translator was not faithful to his parent text in small details, he also could have inserted additional changes in the translation. These units (especially Joshua, Esther, and Daniel) pose special challenges since in these cases it is more difficult to assess the nature of the Hebrew text behind the LXX.